Some people say doesn't the Bible refer in a number of places to wine and strong drink, doesnt it show people drinking alcohol in the Bible? Can't we assume, then, that it does not condemn drinking alcohol?
It's true that we often find people drinking alcohol in the Bible and that Scripture speaks of alcoholic beverages, but we need to be look at the context and also that there was nothing to refrigerate it to keep it from fermenting. When our English Old Testaments refer to alcohol, they generally use the words wine or strong drink. Since the process of distilling alcohol did not develop until around A.D. 500, the strongest alcoholic beverage people could make in Bible times contained only 14 percent alcohol by volume, approximately the maximum produced by natural fermentation. This fact tells us that the scriptural term strong drink certainly gives us no license to drink what we know today as hard liquor.
And what view does the Bible take of this beverage? Of 21 Old Testament texts that mention
shekar (beer), 19 strongly condemn it and you can see what is says in the New Testament regarding John the Baptist..
Luke 1:15
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.
So let's look at what it says about
shekar:
Leviticus 10:9
Do not
drink wine nor
strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations:
Numbers 6:3
He shall separate himself from wine and
strong drink, and shall
drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of
strong drink, neither shall he
drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.
Deuteronomy 29:6
Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or
strong drink: that ye might know that I am the Lord your God.
Judges 13:4
Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and
drink not wine nor
strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
Judges 13:7
But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now
drink no wine nor
strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.
Judges 13:14
She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her
drink wine or
strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe.
Proverbs 20:1
Wine is a mocker,
strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
And we see the story of Hannah. She went to the tabernacle at Shiloh and prayed so earnestly about the fact that she was childless that the priest accused her of being drunk with shekar.
1 Samuel 1:15
And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor
strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
When you look at wine in the Scriptures, you will find two main words,
tirosh which usually refers to grape juice in its unfermented state or fresh, and
yayin.
In 30 of the 38 references to
tirosh in the Old Testament it is paired with grain and oil, or oil alone, as products of the harvest used for tithe and taxes and the other as the product of the grape or produced by pressing and only one text suggests that
tirosh may produce intoxication-and this text may actually be referring to early fermentation or to the practice of mixing new and old (fermented) wine.
Hosea 4:11
Whoredom and
wine and
new wine take away the heart.
How then should we relate to alcohol if we look at the whole picture and the evidence it shows us......